National Returns Day is Jan. 5, at least according to UPS. UPS says Jan. 5 is the day when they return the most packages to retailers. According to the companies' projections, holiday shoppers are projected to return 1.3 million packages Thursday, and another 5.8 million during the first full week of this month. Those numbers are expected to beat 2016's when shoppers returned about 1 million packages on National Returns Day and 5 million packages during the peak returns week.